Photo by John Thawley Tafel Racing will start from the third and fifth rows in GT2 for tomorrow's running of the American Le Mans Series Larry H. Miller Dealerships Utah Grand Prix at Miller Motorsports Park.

Wolf Henzler piloted the No. 71 Tafel Porsche 997 RSR to a qualifying time of 2:45:635 and secured the fifth place starting position for Saturday's grueling two-hour-forty-five-minute race.

"I didn't feel very comfortable in qualifying and as a result we didn't do very well," said Henzler. "I asked for a change in the set-up of the car following the practice that was just prior to qualifying. Unfortunately, the change was not good and it gave us a snap-oversteer that was hard to handle. I'm pretty disappointed for qualifying but happy we learned this before the actual race."

In the No. 73 Tafel Racing entry Dominik Farnbacher was hampered by a poorly timed red flag as he guided the team car around the 24-turn and 4.5-mile distance that makes up the MMP circuit.

"Early on I had a very fast lap going when the session was interrupted by a red flag for a car that spun," Farnbacher said. "That was definitely a quick end to that lap and pretty much it for the rest of qualifying as I wasn't able to repeat that good of a lap. Even so, I really expect much better results in tomorrow's race."

Robin Liddell partners with Henzler in the No. 71 and also sees the upside to the duo having had a difficult qualifying session.

"It looks like we went a little too stiff with the rear suspension and it caused the car to be a bit nervous," said Liddell. "For the race we need to soften things up a bit. The tires work really hard around here because you spend a lot of time in the corners. But in general we consistently improved the balance of the car and Wolf and I share the same viewpoint on the set-up we now need."

Jim Tafel not only shares driving duties with Farnbacher in the #71 car, but shares the opinion that their qualifying result would have been better without the red flag.

"Well, that red flag during the (qualifying) session certainly didn't help us out at all," Tafel said. "Even so, we did the best with what we had and I'm really looking forward to the start of the race. It's all about perseverance and I'm sure it's going to be a great weekend for us.

"I don't think we got the best from the cars in qualifying," said Tony Dowe, team technical director. "But we'll have pretty good cars for the race. There were some things we wanted to do with the cars today, but couldn't because of time restraints. We'll be able to make those changes tonight and I believe the cars will be quite a bit better for the race."